Corporate Treasuries' Debt Clock Ticks Down on Bitcoin

Corporate treasuries holding billions of dollars in Bitcoin are facing a ticking debt clock that could force them to sell their assets on the market, according to Matthew Sigel, VanEck's head of digital assets research.

Sigel shared a list of corporate Bitcoin treasuries that shows who ranks above the coins inside each company's capital structure. Once Bitcoin sits inside a public company's balance sheet, it stands beneath a stack of claims: creditors expecting repayment, preferred shareholders expecting distributions, lenders holding pledged coins, common shareholders wanting buybacks, and an operating business that needs cash to run.

A payment, redemption, or maturity can force a company to sell Bitcoin on a fixed date, regardless of whether it still believes in the asset's long-term price. For example, Bitdeer fully emptied its Bitcoin treasury as of February 20 to fund a pivot into AI data centers.

Strategy, another corporate treasury, reported 843,738 BTC alongside $6.7 billion in convertible notes, $15.5 billion in preferred stock, and an $871 million cash reserve. The company's STRC-style preferred stock trades below par, which has forced it to sell some of its Bitcoin to fund distributions.

Strategy's Digital Credit Capital Framework aims to address the issue by raising the dividend rate on its preferred stock and adding a ratchet that lifts the rate another 0.5 percentage points each time the stock closes below $95.

The company also authorized a BTC Monetization Program permitting sales to fund the cash reserve, preferred dividends, and interest, and buybacks of its own securities.